Sun Belt Media Days: Southern Miss Head Coach believes the footprint will come through

• Will Hall enters his fourth year as USM’s head ball coach. The Golden Eagles go into the season having stacked three solid recruiting classes.

The name on the website says the University of Southern Mississippi.

If Will Hall had his way it might say the University of Mississippi, Southeast Louisiana, Lower Alabama and the Florida panhandle.

If the Golden Eagles are going to break through in Hall’s fourth season it’s going to be because of a region, not just because of Mississippi.

Don’t be fooled. There are 59 players from the state on the roster, and Hall, who starred as a hard-nosed quarterback at Amory under his father Bobby Hall, a high school coaching legend in Mississippi, will always welcome players from his home state.

But through recruiting and retention he’s built a roster he believes will yield big results this season, and that roster has key players from the region as well.

“It’s all about that footprint, not necessarily just Mississippi. As we’ve built this program back, more players from Mississippi have gravitated to us, but we’ve got great players from Alabama, Southeast Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle,” Hall said at Sun Belt Conference Media Days in New Orleans this week. “We want to cater to that footprint. It’s what we said we were going to do, and we’ve come through on that.”

High internal expectations in Year 4

Hall believes the footprint will come through.

“If we’re not competing for the Sun Belt West championship down the stretch, I’ll be extremely disappointed and quite frankly, I probably won’t be the coach here next year,” Hall told the Magnolia Tribune in May.

Hall, a former Division II player, won the Harlon Hill Trophy, that level’s Heisman, as a senior at North Alabama in 2003.

He had big success coaching at West Alabama, a small school with scant resources, and West Georgia, his teams making the playoffs four times in six years.

He left a comfort level in Division II to become a Division I assistant in 2017 and made stops at Louisiana-Lafayette, Memphis and Tulane before landing the Southern Miss job in 2021.

The Golden Eagles were 3-9, 2-6 in Conference USA in his first season. They were trending up in 2022 at 7-6, 4-4 in their first Sun Belt season, finishing with a 38-24 win over Rice in the Lending Tree Bowl.

They dipped to 3-9, 2-6 last season.

Southern Miss goes into the season with new coordinators on offense and defense.

More importantly, the Golden Eagles go into the season having stacked three solid recruiting classes on top of one another. Southern Miss had the Sun Belt’s No. 4 class in 2022, No. 3 in 2023 and No. 2 this season.

The footprint is important, Hall believes, but that commitment combined with his ability to keep a majority of players signed is what gives him great optimism for 2024.

“In today’s day and age there are two ways to build your roster. One is recruiting, that’s always been the case right, and we’re blessed to have recruited well here for three-straight years. The second way is through retention and retaining your roster. It’s not enough anymore just to recruit well. You’ve got to keep them. We’ve been able to retain our good players here,” he said.

While keeping his best players Hall has been able to pick up key pieces as former power conference players reevaluate and resettle.

QB battle under way

The ongoing battle for QB1 is a snapshot of the roster with sophomore Ethan Crawford, a program signee from the footprint – Hillcrest High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama – and Florida State transfer Tate Rodemaker.

Crawford played in six games as a true freshman including a start in the season finale at Troy. The Golden Eagles lost 35-17. Crawford was 11-for-21 passing for 132 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.

He was big off the bench in a 34-31 win at Louisiana-Lafayette two weeks prior completing six of 11 for 62 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.

Rodemaker played in 23 games over four seasons at Florida State. He’s a 57.6 percent career passer with 91 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions.

“Regardless of who wins that battle, and they’re kind of out in front right now, it’s going to be somebody that’s played college football, played at a high level and won some games,” Hall said.

The winner will also have an experienced blind side protector in left tackle Gabe Cavazos (6-6, 303), a redshirt junior.

The footprint and retention have given the Golden Eagles depth and experience along both lines, Hall said.

Why players hang around

The retention shows that players believe in the program to develop them, and a successful NIL collective helps.

“Theses players believe in our coaches, they believe in our strength staff, they believe in the opportunities that are provided to them by the University of Southern Mississippi, they believe in the opportunities provided to them through the To The Top Collective,” Hall said.

With all the belief, why would Hall – a born motivator with positive thinking in his genes — not also believe?

It’s a big year for him personally, and the Golden Eagles are equipped to meet the challenge, he says.

“We’ve got a lot of excitement going into 2024. We’ve got more depth, we’ve got more experience, and we’ve got more guys that have played college football than we’ve ever had.”